3 May 2010

Shadow boxing with brothels

Henare calls for Prostitution Reform Act amendment
Press Release: New Zealand National Party

Tau Henare
National List MP
30 April 2010
MEDIA RELEASE

West Auckland National MP Tau Henare is calling for an urgent amendment to the Prostitution Reform Act 2003.

“It is appalling and totally unacceptable that a brothel can go up opposite a school’s gate and nothing can be done to stop it. The Act as it stands allows this to happen. It needs to be amended” said Mr Henare.

“The previous Labour led government legalised prostitution in 2003 to protect sex workers, but clearly not enough consideration was given to protecting children from the unwanted influences of the sex industry outside their schools” says Mr Henare. “We now have a situation where there are very few restrictions on where a brothel can be sited. As long as a small owner operated brothel meets the definition of a “home occupation” as set out in the Resource Management Act a resource consent is not required and there’s nothing a local authority can do to stop it.

“The law urgently requires a commonsense clause that enables local authorities to manage the location of brothels. I will be working with my colleagues in Wellington to bring about this change,” says Mr Henare

ENDS

The actual legal position at the moment:

Prostitution Reform Act 2003:s 14 Bylaws regulating location of brothels
Without limiting section 145 of the Local Government Act 2002, a territorial authority may make bylaws for its district under section 146 of that Act for the purpose of regulating the location of brothels.

Course Outline

"From time to time ... lawyers and judges have tried to define what constitutes fairness. Like defining an elephant, it is not easy to do, although fairness in practice has the elephantine quality of being easy to recognise. As a result of these efforts a word in common usage has acquired the trappings of legalism: 'acting fairly' has become 'acting in accordance with the rules of natural justice', and on occasion has been dressed up with Latin tags. This phrase in my opinion serves no useful purpose and in recent years it has encouraged lawyers to try to put those who hold inquiries into legal straitjackets.... For the purposes of my judgment I intend to ask myself this simple question: did the [decision-maker] act fairly towards the plaintiff?"

This course examines the elephantine concept of fairness in the law, along with other contemporary legal issues.